


Straight East (A Bone Fan Fiction)

by NovasEpiphany



Category: Bone (Comic), Jeff Smith (Bone)
Genre: A prequel and a sequel, Adopted Children, Babies, Blood and Gore, Boneville, Comedy, Conflict, Fantasy, Kidnapping, Maybe Romance? - Freeform, Minor Violence, Monsters, Multi, Prequel, Sequel, Stupidity, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-05 00:03:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21405712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovasEpiphany/pseuds/NovasEpiphany
Summary: Straight East from Old Man's Cave is Crooked Peak, a quarter of the size of Flint Ridge. A well-hidden rat creature tribe with differing morals are expertly secluded from the rest of the Valley's inhabitants. They crave equality with men and believe they can seek redemption through their man like morals and societal standards. Though on one particular day, they realize it can never be.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jeff Smith](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Jeff+Smith).

Pitch black was the valley, now matching the home of Dokrees tribe which rarely saw the sun. His rat creatures were all a bustle with fading patience. Though they had eaten two days ago, the group's stomach equally ached and gurgled with anticipation. Dokree was observing atop of Crooked Peak, staring at the small farm where their flock of hens was asleep. It had been only a few hours since the sun had set, but to them, it felt like an eternity ago. Finally, the old man blew out the candles, hurtling the cute farm into blissful darkness, and Dokrees head perked up high, his group quickly following his interesting behavior. 

“FINALLY! I thought the old buzzard would never go to bed. We should break his legs while he’s asleep.”

Dokree gave his subordinate a side glance and spoke, 

“Then who would breed our meals?”

His brown subordinate tucked his ears down in thought and squinted his eyes before springing up with elation. 

“The old woman!! She has many cows she wastes on races-“

“We do not cross the river” 

“But-“

Dokree bared his teeth and shoved his face directly into his now cowering comrade. 

“Do you INSIST we have an encounter with Kingdok?! Or one of the other more primitive tribes that are fluctuating in numbers as we speak? Oh no, perhaps you would prefer the Red Dragon??”

With that name, the entire tribe let out a low hiss of disapproval. The brown rat creature looked at the ground in regret of his suggestion. 

“No...”

“Good. We are lucky as it is with the cub Roque Ja romping about. Let us move now.”

Dokree motioned his head forward for his tribe to follow him down the peak. He led them at a cautious pace with him in front and compacted tribe scuffling behind him with a little less grace.

As they reached the farm's outer rim, the creatures followed their regimen they had executed many times before. Eventually, the entire farm was encompassed with red eyes reflecting a waxing moon. Dokree stood, waiting to give a command for his men to move forward. The same brown subordinate from earlier whined with impatience. 

“I can practically taste them.” 

He whimpered as drool streaked down his chin and soaked the fur on his chin. 

“Quiet!”

Dokree hissed. The entire tribe nearly jumped out of their skin in unison as the silent atmosphere was pierced by a babbled cry. It continued but was muffled, coming from the interior of the house. Members of the tribe were whispering with worry for the baby might wake up the old man and his wife. The rat creatures exploded in a frightful whispering frenzy. 

“It’s going to ruin everything!” 

“Quiet the infant!” 

“It’s so loud it will stir up our meal!”

Dokree was also quite frantic and was not sure what move he should make. He turned towards his nearby comrades. 

“Stay put, I will take care of the weasel.”

Two of the tribe members looked at each other and then back at Dokree. 

“Not like that you idiots!”

He lightly hissed out. 

“Remain here unless instructed otherwise.”

They nodded with understanding and spread the word through the others encompassing the farm. Dokree came out from his shielded position behind the shrubbery and stayed low to the ground as he stalked up to the open bedroom window. He was quite large for the average build of a rat creature, which he was reminded of quickly as he began crawling through the open window only to get stuck. He rubbed his hands down his face in frustration. Wonderful. The whole tribe was getting an exquisite view of his voluptuous posterior. Lovely.

He scanned the room in his ridiculous position. The babe was in a wooden crib with wool blankets comfortably gripped in its palm. It appeared to be about two years of age and Dokree was having a difficult time determining the gender of the little thing. It began to wail louder, the tears blinding its sight and making it that much worse. He hurriedly placed both hands on either side of the wall and began straining his neck forward. 

“Come on, come on, coM-“

He was sent loose and skittered in surprise across the stoned floor. He froze briefly, ears tucked in worry that the farmer had heard. The farmer was getting old and his wife was quite the heavy sleeper, for had anyone else heard, they would have been jolted from their dreamscape. Dokree came upon the crib and realized he hadn’t thought this far ahead. There was a very strict set of rules the tribe followed and respected and made situations like these incredibly difficult. Not to mention these rules were put into place by him. The babe was still absolutely distraught when Dokree covered it with a blanket. 

“This should get you to shut up…”

Well no. No, it didn’t. Now the cries were just muffled and laced with confusion. He gritted his teeth with worry as he quickly glanced at the sleeping farmer and then back to the issue. 

“shhh, ssshhhh, little one, hush now…”

No such luck. The blanket now had a blatant wet spot from the flood of tears breaching its small eyes. Dokree hesitantly reached into the crib and took the baby into his arms as he sat on his haunches. 

“Shhhh, it-it is okay youngling, sh-“

“WAAAGH!”

“OH WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!!”

I high pitched scream sent Dokree with the baby still in his arms, hurtling against a wall in pure fright. 

“Jesus Christ… Joel! Oh, Joel, wake up, a rat creature has our babe!”

The old farmer stumbled out of the covers and fumbled with an old hoe by the bed. Dokree was cornered as the old man wobbly marched up to him at a horrifying rate. 

“Wait wait! Please, this is a mi-“

Before Dokree could finish, he wailed in pain from the hoes blow into his right eye. The air was thick with fresh blood and loud wailing as Dokree hissed and clutched his eye socket with his free hand. 

“JOEL! IT STILL HAS HER, OH GOD-“

Dokree bolted through the door this time, leaving small droplets of blood in his wake. He ran out of the home and screamed, 

“RUN! RETREAT! WE FEED TOMORROW!” 

The last he heard from the wind rushing past him was the wife yelling out a name he could not comprehend because of his hurried escape. He did not even check to see if his troops had followed until he had come home, hidden behind Crooked Peak. He stumbled over rocks, panting and heaving, he regained his breath and focused on calming his nerves. The blood loss, however, was becoming significant and was beginning to blur his vision. Something in his arms wriggled and grounded him so fast, he forgot he was about to fall unconscious. The babe was no longer crying and just looked wide-eyed at Dokree's missing eye. 

“What are you looking at.”

He hissed out. The babe shook its head ‘no’, which wasn’t really the correct response, especially since the infant’s gaze was still affixed to his missing eye. He touched around it and took a sharp inhale through his teeth. He had stopped bleeding however the blood was crusted tightly to his skin and matted in his hair. He huffed and Stared back at the baby in his arms, recalling that the farmer’s wife had called it a ‘she’. Dokree absent-mindedly took its little hand into his own and began observing and playing with it. 

“What am I going to do with this thing?”

he complained, hand running down his face. 

“I’LL TELL YOU WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO!”

The tribe had at last caught up and only one rat creature was utterly furious. Foam was breaching the corners of his mouth as he walked straight up to Dokree and pointed accusingly and the bundle. 

“Our meal has been RUINED by this child of man! It will be a small meal but LET US EAT.”

Some of the rat creatures hissed at this and got behind Dokree in defense while quite a few others stood behind the blue rat creature who looked utterly feral. 

“WE MUST STOP BEING PATHETIC AND ACCEPT THAT THESE WAYS ARE NOT FOR US! Besides,”

the blue rat creature gained a dark aura that made the others wary, 

“rumor spreads through the valley that the lord of locusts is awakening.”

Dokrees loyal followers spat and hissed with rage. 

“HOLD YOUR TONGUE BEFORE WE RIP IT FROM YOUR TEETH!”

“LIES!!”

“DOKREE IS OUR ONLY MEANS OF REDEMPTION!”

Thick and heavy was the air with vile intention, the creatures writhing with suppressed contempt. Dokree looked between his divided tribe and finally spoke strongly. 

“If you would like to leave and join such a vile cause, then leave.” 

Silence. Only the sound of crumbling stone and twinkling stars could be heard. 

“But what of the cub, Dokree?”

The entire tribe was unified once more in their confusion with the babe. 

“Dok.”

Dokree was the only one who seemed to not notice while the other members of the tribe’s hackles went up. 

“The lord of locusts will never awake and an attempt would be as foolish as its-“

“Did it just speak?”

Dokree cocked his head, looking slightly irritated that he was so rudely interrupted. 

“Did what speak?”

“Dok.”

“THE INFANT YOU DOLT!”

He drew his attention back to the baby cradled tightly against him. 

“…No-“

“Dok.”

She babbled, as her gaze was not just locked onto his missing eye, but on him as an individual. He nearly dropped the baby as his ears shot up and twitched. 

“WHO CARES IF IT SPOKE?! ARE YOU ALL MORONS?!”

A rat creature in the back of the tribe shouted out in response, 

“Well, we are rat creatures-“

“QUIET YOU!”

The blue rat creature tried to regain composure as he clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and released a large breath of air through his nose. 

“Now… Who will be joining me in ditching this DEGRADING tribe?” 

He glanced at his comrades, none of them looking him in the eye. Rabidly, he scanned every one of his people’s faces. 

“Nobody??”

He finally met the only pair of eyes that would look into his. Dokrees. 

“You… you-yOU-YOU IDIOTS! FINE!”

The tribe parted in two for the blue rat creature to run to join a differing tribe. The tension slowly faded the farther that rat creature ran. Now all that remained was the unified hunger of the entire tribe and an utterly conflicted infant.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tribe begins to have more dilemmas all because of one small child of man.

A violent bonfire had been started to keep the rats warm. Despite their dense fur, the frigid mountain breeze that cut down violently behind Crooked Peak was enough to make them feel naked. They sat in an off silence, picking at the chicken bones that were unevenly scattered all about them. Only a few had specks of rotting meat on the bone, though the tribe was elated to whenever one was found. Their elation was quite short-lived, unfortunately. Dokree stared into the flames in deep thought, pondering over his decisions and what was best for him and his people.

“Dokree.” One of his people said as she leisurely approached.

“Hm?” He grunted.

“Your eye.”

“… Right.”

Dokree took a few steps away from the flames and allowed the female rat creature to begin cleaning his eye with freshly melted snow water, gathered in an old cow’s skull. The mountains runoff was quite cold and while it was appreciated for a parched throat, it was not on an aching wound. The moist moss had barely grazed the raw skin of Dokrees eye when he let out a hiss through his teeth.

“…I haven’t touched you yet.”

“Then maybe it’s best if you don’t.”

The female rat creature huffed and sat on her haunches, claws on her hips.

“Would you prefer searing pain that gets worse with every passing day until your inevitable, early death?”

“…”

He begrudgingly waddled up to her and re-presented his eye for cleaning. She nods and begins lightly dabbing the wound until the moss became stained with a sick burgundy color. His mind wandered and so did his one good eye. That whelp. Today had truly been another grueling one. One that was once again caused by man and its impressionable offspring. Dokree glared with his one remaining eye at the baby while it had sat up in its blankets, looking about at its new surroundings with piqued curiosity. The fact that she had not been profusely crying was as shocking as it was disturbing.

What unnerved Dokree the most however was her newfound interest with her bloody-faced kidnapper. Her big round brown eyes stared into his red one. His hackles rose slowly until he flinched from a slap on his shoulder.

“HEY!”

The female rat creature who had smacked him looked just about done with his nonsense, her empty stomach fueling her tired frustration.

“I’m almost done! You can play with the thing later.”

Dokree grumbled something in defense that he was not ‘playing’ with the man-cub. His nurse rolled her eyes and began finishing the wound cleaning. Dokree slowly moved his gaze back to the baby as to not give the impression to his underlings that he was completely enthralled with its presence. He had to use all of his self-control to not move in his bewilderment at the infants' new mood. It was smiling at him.

“Dok.”

Purely instinctual, he leaped back and hissed with his teeth bared. At this point, the female who had been tending to his wound looked unamused as she tossed the warm red water over her shoulder and wandered off to join her friends in finding small portions of rotting meat.

The infant laughed at Dokree's behavior and held her arms out towards him, waiting to receive affection. Dokree still kept his hunched posture like that of a territorial cat and just stared at her. Her smile began to fade as she made little grunts and coos, her hands grasping and un-grasping the air as if that would aid her in receiving much-wanted cuddles. Dokree glanced about him, no one's attention on him and the babe. Leisurely, he sidestepped towards her until he was directly in front of her. She waited patiently now, frozen to see what his next move would be. Dokrees dirty hand slowly reached out for her and pushed her over with a little more force than he had intended onto her back. He jumped backward again, hackles high.

For a moment, the baby just laid there on its back, wondering what in the absolute world just happened, but then wobbly pushed itself back into a sitting position while letting out little baby huffs. The fact that this creature could move in any way was confusing enough to the rat creature. What was he supposed to do with it? Return it?

Dokree growls in frustration as he picks up the infant by its right leg and swung it onto his back. He didn’t understand why he just expected it to hold onto him, but surprisingly enough, she gripped tightly to him and nuzzled her cold red face into his warm back fur. He almost naturally began walking with her holding tight to his back. A few of the other rat creatures noticed this and watched as he began to head back into the forest. Two of his clanmates looked at each other.

“Where do you suppose he’s going with it?”

The other rat creature shrugged, moving a mound of bones aside that he had previously had checked for scraps. Never hurts to look twice.

“Dunno. Maybe he’s returning it.”

The other hissed in response.

“Nonsense! After what that old sack took his eye?? Ridiculous….”

“….”

“…. I suppose that would be very Dokree.”

He mumbled, giving up on reviewing his bone pile.

“Very by strict to his own rules isn’t he?”

They look up at the stars in the sky.

“Mhmm..”

Dokree hadn’t gotten very far back to the farmhouse before he had to turn back to avoid torches and pitchforks. The woods were now crawling with enraged bellowing men. A chipmunk would snore and the mob would start swinging at the wind. Now, he sat atop the safety of the peak, watching the number of torches slowly dissipate with exhaustion. One by one, Dokree and the man child watched the torched go out deep beneath the trees.

Dokree let out a sigh, mindlessly stress grooming the baby's hair, slowly lulling it to sleep. Returning her was too dangerous. At least for a while. This also meant his tribe would need to find a different source of food, given the fact that everyone was now alert and that those farmers would now be keeping two eyes out. Another massive dilemma given recent events.

Killing her was against his morals and not to mention the rules he had put into place for his tribe. Abandoning her was also not an option for him given that any other rat creature would not hesitate to indulge in such a delicacy. He might as well had just killed her himself if he did that. Looking over at the fast asleep small bundle, he decided to keep it until it was safe to give it back to her own kind. Beginning to head back to his tribe, he would never expect what the future had in store for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for waiting and I apologize for how short it is! More chapters on the way and will be released sooner than later
> 
> ~Nova


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A forever fear of the water is developed and so is a name.

“It’s soiled itself.”

“Then clean it.”

“YOU clean it!”

The female rat creature nearly screamed at the unfatherly Dokree with annoyance.

“IT’S NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY!!”

Dokree flinched and shrunk back, child tightly gripped against his chest and ears tucked tightly to his head. It looked comical given how much larger he was compared to the pestered female as she stomped off to groom herself. Dokree held the baby at an arm's length, his face contorted in a grimace. Rat creatures didn’t smell great or anything, in fact, they were notorious in The Valley for smelling like rotten dead things. Stinking of several days of feces, however…

“You smell rancid, whelp.”

“Ah.”

She responded. Dokree rolled his eye and waddled with her still held away from him next to a small stream his clan used for drinking water and such. He glanced between her and the water, completely lost. One of the members yelled from down the stream.

“Just wash it!”

“…”

Dokree dropped her in with an audible ‘plunk!’ and sat there a moment before another rat creature sat next to him.

“…. I didn’t know flat-landers could breathe underwater.”

  
  
  
“.. Me neither.”

Dokree responded, before he thought for a moment and slightly shouted down at the submerged baby as if she could hear him.

“…. Can you breathe underwater, stink?”

* * *

After that complete disaster of a bathing session and one traumatized but clean baby later, Dokree and his tribe returned to the safety of the peak to get ready for tomorrow's forage. The small human had dried enough that she wouldn’t be freezing behind the shadows of the peak, but her hair still was a mess to dry given the rat creatures' lack of supply for such things.

“Do you remember what they called their offspring?”

“Hm?” Dokree grunted as he continued to attempt at drying the wiggly child with a shred of rag.

“Did it have a name? You know that it’s female but what did its birth-givers call it?”

Dokree didn’t realize he clutched her tighter against him when the other rat creature mentioned her parents.

“I don’t remember, I was busy bleeding out thanks to their thoughtless actions.”

He hissed in a grimace, not fond of the agonizing pain that came with the memory. 

“Well, what are you going to call it?”

Dokree growled, baring his teeth at the now cowering rat creature.

“Stop asking so many questions about the stink!”

The two sat there not speaking to each other for a good three minutes, the only sound coming from the small naked infant in Dokrees hands. He poked at her as he got lost in his own thoughts. He hadn’t considered a name for her. To him, she was just ‘Stink’ or ‘Stinky’. Not in a bad way, of course, this was just the most secretive term of endearment he was happy with.

“Hmmm…”

Dokrees muttering made his colleague jump out of surprise and slight fear.

“What about… No no,”

Dokree turned to face his comrade, one hand on his chin in thought, the other, holding the baby upside down by its leg, much to its babbled enjoyment.

“Should it be, what, flowery? Fancy? Like… Quiche?”

“Quiche..?” Questioned his conversation partner.

Dokree growled and waved that name away as if it hung around in the air.

“Agh, no no no, that’s just something I heard from someone in Kingdoks army. She shouldn’t be named after a food.”

He contemplated for longer, his partner not daring to offer up any ideas.

“…..Nessen?”

The other rat creature scrunched up its face, clearly weirded out by the suggestion.

“What? We might as well just name it ‘morse code’-“

“Shut up, I’m close… Nessen… Nessen... I like the sound of Nesssssss.”

Dokree uttered out, now trying to find something similar to the word that wasn’t ancient rat creature military language. This time his comrade had suggestions.

“Nest?”

“It's not a bird you imbecile!”

“Hmmm… Nice, Neat,… Sssss… Seee…. Neep?”

“What the hell is a ‘Neep’? She doesn’t even make that noise.”

“Neep!” The baby chirped.

“Silence Stink.”

She laughed, still hanging upside down by her leg and Dokree shivered from a foreign emotion. He wrapped her up in her slightly stained wool blanket and poked at her cheek with his long nails. She grasped his pointer finger and lightly squeezed it.

“Nettle…. Oooo I kind of like that. Like the plant that’s all stingy... But she has to have the ‘sssssss’ in her name. Nessle… Nestle..”

He happily points at his comrade as if he’d just found something he’d forgotten about for years.

“Nestle! And I will still call it ‘Stink’.. ‘Ness’ for short.”

His comrade’s ears perked up, glad that he was somewhat of a help to his leader.

“Yess! I shall also refer to it as ‘Stink’-“

Dokree whipped his head towards his companion, almost as if he had slapped him.

“No no, ‘Stink’ is only for me. You call her Stink, and I will remove your bowels.”

“But-“

“No more questions, I have to put her to bed or she’ll keep us all awake and ruin tomorrows plans.”

The other rat creature nodded and hopped off to join some of the onlooking rat creatures, which when discovered that they were eavesdropping, turned their heads in all different directions and whistled. Dokree rolled his eye and tried to gently lay down the child onto its woolen blankets. It’d be at least a day until he could dress it due to her only clothes being sopping wet and set on the rocks that got only an hour of sunlight a day. Not that the offspring of man seemed to mind of course.

She seemed perfectly happy if no elated to be bare butt naked and running amuck causing an annoyance to everyone else in the small group. It was almost amusing if she wasn’t so…. Hairless. Nestle squirmed in her blankets, clearly full of energy and not wanting to be confined just yet.

“Sit still…” 

Dokree muttered, as he rewrapped and rewrapped and rewrapped her again. By the fourth time she had come out of her blanket, he spat in her face.

“SIT STILL YOU BRAT!”

She reeled back in shock at how loud and violent Dokree had just scolded her. Her reaction was delayed a few moments before her eyes began to water and she let out sad little grunts. Dokrees ears flattened so tightly against his head that they no longer looked like a tangible feature on his body.

“Nonononono, shhhh, I’m sorry I’m sorry-”

He inexpertly patted her face with the flat of his palm, successfully sending her from a state of sadness to a state of utter confusion. A few tears rolled down her fat cheeks as the two just stared at each other in awe, not knowing how to interact or react to each other whatsoever. Dokree looked about him for help from his clan members, but the moment their eyes would meet, they would pretend they were incredibly busy staring at a rock or making sure their bare chicken bones were perfectly aligned. Dokree tapped his two index fingers together as he drew his attention back to the slightly less confused infant.

“….Nestle.”

He uttered lightly at her. The babe was looking away from him, not paying attention or listening.

“..Nestle?”

He tried again, only a little louder with his head tilted to the side. This time, she turned her head to look up at him and his ears shot up.

“Nestle.”

He repeated. She continued looking at him.

“..Ah.”

Nestle said, with her entire body. Dokrees hands clutched close to him in excited fists.

“Yes! Yes but no… Your name, you,” He pokes her in the chest,

  
“Are Nesssss. Nesssstle. Nessssss.”

“..Sssssssss.” 

She repeated. Without thinking, he bopped her as he would a cub of the tribe who would disrespect the leader.

“Do not hiss at me. Oh. I mean good. Er,”

He patted her face again with the flat of his palm.

“You’ll learn, Nestle.”

She giggled and gripped his large wrinkly hand with her tiny soft ones.

“Ssssssssss.”

“Stop that.”


End file.
